The national sports media has anointed Brett Favre as the “John Wayne” of the NFL.
Tough, brash, the hero in the white hat that stands for everything right in the world of football.
This is the same guy who stayed around long enough to break the records for most passing yards and touchdowns.
Funny thing, they never mention the other record that he set this past season – most interceptions in NFL history.
As a matter of fact, we thought we had seen his last pass. It was the interception that helped vault the New York Giants into the Super Bowl.
Now he wants to come back. Favre has again gone through the ritual of going home, sitting around the farm, talking it over with his family and, at the last minute, and announcing his return.
But this time, he had a tear-filled press conference saying “goodbye.”
Not so fast, though, Brett has had a change of heart.
For many of us, it was a forgone conclusion that this was going to happen. The problem is that he has put the Green Bay Packers in a terrible spot. He waited until virtually the last minute and now wants everyone to feel sorry for him.
If you are projected starter Aaron Rogers, why don’t you just ask the Packers to release you so they can have fun with Brett again?
Several teams would have real interest in him, and spare him from being part of the circus that is Brett Favre. Brett Favre had a great season last year, and that should be his last year.
Packing it in
I normally don’t have an opinion on hiring and firings in the broadcast business.
My option has always been to turn the sound down or change the channel when I don’t like an announcer. Most, I can stomach.
Billy Packer does not fit in that category. When CBS announced that he would not be back, I realized that I could now turn the sound up again.
When Packer first came on the CBS scene, he was knowledgeable, sharp and almost entertaining. Nothing was better than the days when he and the great Al McGuire worked together and Al would check him at the door.
Over the years, though, he became gruff, abrasive and seemingly uninterested with the game of college basketball outside of the ACC and Big East.
He was a talk-show host nightmare.
Disinterested, rude and just a plain jerk to many of us who would ask him to share his knowledge of the game. In most cases, you got very little analysis, which is why he became somewhat of a lost soul.
While I am sure he does not care about that element, he should have gone the route of others who know they would rather not do interviews and politely decline.
Have you ever heard Bryant Gumbel do a radio or TV interview? That’s his and Billy’s business.
The biggest bone of contention was the fact that Packer had started to act as if he was bigger than the game and the broadcast. He had become another master at stating the obvious.
